Creative Movement & Dance Activities

Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. If we pair the music with movement, we have the added benefits of improving balance, coordination and rhythm. So, let’s get moving!

For young children, you can have some fun with music and movement by doing an action song such as: If You Are Happy and You Know It or Do The Hokey Pokey.

Alternatively, for older children, you can choose a popular song from the radio that has a lot of repetition of a particular word, or a phrase like the song Happy by Pharell Williams, or Thunder by Imagine Dragons.

  • Choose your song
  • Pick a movement that you will do for most of the song (i.e., running on the spot, free dancing, arm circles, etc.,)
  • Then, pick a second movement that is a little tougher to do (i.e., squats, or pushups, etc.,) and when you hear the repetition word or phrase (e.g. Happy or Thunder), you switch to your second movement
  • You continue moving/dancing or the whole song, switching your movement only when you hear the “repeating” word or phrase

Have fun dancing and moving!